New Cross House Fire, 1981 Brixton
Even now the smell
Still hasn’t smouldered away
Or coughed over the memory
Out of the chimney.
Long ago electricity surged
Through locked doors
Before stretching skywards
As flames danced high
Out of the bathroom.
Music pounded out
Flickering in a careless murmur
Before being reduced
To a whisper of
A multiple rumoured murder,
Still cast occasionally
In the press
On a quiet day
Of 13 young lives
Snatched away
Or a tragedy of Justice
Before the riots reduced it
To a ignored prologue
In Brixton
Then Manchester
In 1981
Even now.
(New Cross House Fire was a major house fire in Brixton, London 1981 that led to the Brixton Riots in 1981 which spread throughout the United Kingdom)
Andy N is a 41 year old writer from Manchester, UK. He has published one book of poetry ‘Return to Kemptown’ (2010) viva N Press and a split book with Jeff Dawson ‘A Means to an End’ (2011) also through N Press. He is vocalist in the spoken word music band ‘A Means to an End’ and is currently working on his second full length collection ‘The End of Summer’ which will probably be out in 2014.